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Louisville author Kirby Gann’s debut novel begins, literally, with a bang—a train accident involving the narrator’s father—and then moves quickly on to a scene in which the narrator himself, Gabriel, goes for a bike ride during a tornado. And those two incidents are just a taste of the headlong adventures and visceral experiences in which the characters will find themselves. The Barbarian Parade traces Gabriel’s life from that bike ride when he is 8 through a soccer-centered adolescence, during which his father is imprisoned, and into a young adulthood of unfulfilled dreams. Sometimes startling in its frank descriptiveness, the novel paints a clear picture of a young man in turmoil, searching for unattainable gratification and love, and a family disintegrating before our eyes.
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Blurbs from the book cover
Card catalog entry from the Library of Congress
Discussion questions from the Hill Street Press Reader’s Guide
Publisher’s information page from Hill Street Press
Amazon.com information page
Barnes and Noble information page
Book review from Southern Scribe
Some soccer sites:
• U.S. Soccer Federation
• Major League Soccer
• Fédération Internationale de Football Association
The real Montreux is a city on the Swiss Riviera known for its jazz festival. (Gann says the Montreux in the book is not necessarily Louisville in disguise.)
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